Of Relevance

So another school term began today, and I am not a happy camper.

I hate getting up unreasonably early, and I consider anything before 7:30 to be unreasonable. As things stand, I have to be out of bed at 6:45, and this is not to my liking at all. Not only is it cold and miserable, but by 3pm I am usually exhausted.

I wish schools started their day later. Say, 8:30 or so.

I read recently that pupils at schools in the US that started 30 minutes later had a remarkably increased level of concentration, because apparently that extra 30 or so minutes of sleep in the morning can make all the difference.

And while we are on the subject of school times, I think schools waste so much time that it boggles the mind. Now, I am not advocating that kids go to school and work, work, work straight through (although I am not actually sure why this is such a bad idea), but I think there should be much less of all this crap that is clothed as “school work”.

For example, my kid had to go back to school today, even though she watched the World Cup final yesterday. This is because the school need a certain school days in the year, and it couldn’t sacrifice the Monday. OK. So I considered not sending her, but in the end thought we should be slightly more responsible about it. So she went. And what did she do the whole day? She helped rearrange and clean the classroom. Well. Honestly. She has a whole room of her own she could help me clean.

And I could have slept in.

Another Geekretreat has come and gone, and as with most things it is probably best to put reflections on paper as soon as possible.

The first thing that struck me – but not for the first time, is how talented, passionate and inspired my fellow geeks are. There was nobody at the retreat who did not positively contribute to it. At an event like this one, where 50 people with a common thread but diverse backgrounds come together, it might seems risky to not have a set agenda, or even a set of clearly defined goals right from the start. But that is the beauty of the creative process. Slowly but surely everyone starts to fill in the blanks – no one has to catch up, or “get it”, because there really is nothing to get. We come together, we talk. We ask. We think. We inspire. And we listen. There are very many discussions – almost no time slot is taken up with a one way communication – but there are very few heated arguments.

There were over forty speaking opportunities, and nobody’s voice was silenced. There were no keynotes, no sessions that were more important than others. We sat and we listened to people sharing their ideas, and if we were not inspired or connected with what we were hearing, we moved on to another venue, another speaker, another passion.

And as diverse as the ideas were, they did have common threads running through them, The ones that resonated most with me was the national pride, and the sense of urgency of using our skills and our knowledge to empower others in our country.

But there was something stronger still: the willingness to seek solutions rather than hide behind obstacles. That is rare for our society: we tend to complain, but don’t often propose how a situation can be made better. At the Geekretreat, believe it or not, nobody ever swore at Telkom, or the government, or the dti. We really didn’t focus on what is wrong, but rather on how we can make it better.

So, can 50 geeks come together in Stanford Valley, spend 3 days talking, listening (and drinking) and come up with solutions to problems that have been baffling the country for years? Suprisingly, yes. And that’s because we each understand the power of one. It might be that social media has made us bold in our approach to conquering large problems, since we know that one blog post, or one tweet even, can start an avalanche. But that’s a blessing, because we are not discouraged by the enormity of the problems.

A lot more, I hope, will be written up about the projects proposed or discussed at the Geekretreat. I hope some get traction, and start happening. Here are a few:

And what did others think? From a quick ad hoc survey, all participants really enjoyed the opportunity to mingle, talk and share. A common thread running through the comments is that it is wonderful to realise that companies and people who previously thought of themselves as competitors have now realised they will achieve more if they work together.

And just for that little gem, the Geekretreat should be considered a great success.

(A special word of thanks to all our sponsors: <Telamenta, Old Mutual, Skyrove, Yola, White Wall Web, Seacom, IS, Jackie Scala, eConsultancy, Orca Wireless)

(And as an aside, our venue, the Stanford Valley, was absolutely awesome. If you are looking for a quiet retreat, away from the hustle and bustle, you’d be doing yourself a favour by checking it out. )

written by Eve Dmochowska
This post appeared originally on www.TheBroadbandBible.co.za

So my partner Craig and I have opened up 2010 with our official release of the The Broadband Bible, which is a 66 page pdf that compares ADSL and Wireless plans in South Africa. All in all, there are 35+ ISPs listed, and about 300+ different plans. And it took a long time to put together. You can download it for free here, or read it below.

I did most of the tabulating and comparing myself, which was an eye opener. It made me realise what a convoluted and confusing industry this really is. In fact, as Craig says, it seems that some ISPs make their living my purporsefully making the plans as complicated and difficult to understand as possible, and hiding from an apples-to-apples comparison.

And from looking at our comparison tables, it is mind boggling to understand how some ISPs get away with charging what they charge. Some prices, for a virtually identical product can be up to five times as high as those of the cheapest provider. When you get over the shock, you start feeling a big bout of disgust.

And although it is (hopefully) true that the more expensive ISPs offer faster speeds (lower latencies) and better customer service, this certainly does not come across clearly in their explanations of the service.

What is most interesting to me though, is how the Internet promises “perfect information” (all information supposedly available online, all easily accessible) yet manages to sustain such price discrepancies, for a basic commodity. Basically what it boils down to is that the theory of having perfect information does not (not even closely) lead to attaining the “Perfect Price”. And why not? I guess the extra layer of what needs to happen with the perfect information (careful analysis, rational decision process) is a challenge many simply are not committed to. Which is why, with pretty websites and confusing language, many ISPs get away with overcharging.

All this highlights a worrying trend: is the online audience expecting to be spoonfed all the time, or will there come a time when easily accessible perfect information will become the standard? Certainly Craig and I are going to continue creating “Consumer Bibles”, comparing specs of products so that the audience can make better informed decisions (our next bibles are the Printer Bible and the Laptop Bible, launching January 21 2010). At the very least we hope this will start a trend of clear reporting by the manufacturers, and indirectly force better prices, and better products.

Download The Broadband Bible for free here, or read below

The Broadband Bible

Renting offices is expensive, and often problematic. You have to tie yourself in to a lease, pay a deposit and ensure that your business is viable enough at all times to support it: there is very little flexibility. Which is why, I guess, the concept of sharing office space has taken off hugely in the US. There is a whole culture around it, and there are many permutations of the same offering.

The gist of it is that instead of tying yourself to a long lease, you simply rent a space for a desk in a big office, and share it with others who are there under the same arrangement. The advantages are obvious:

• You pay only for the space you use
• You share the office with other cool people
• You are not tied to a lease
• You can add space as you can afford it (if your team grows, for instance)
• You often get the benefits of a receptionist, and business equipment
• You have access to good bandwidth, that you for per usage

You can explore the world of coworking by following the links from this excellent wiki on the subject

Well… Gareth Knight, Brett Haggard and myself would like to arrange a space like that for web workers in Joburg. We still have to finalise details, but the space would probably be in the Rivonia/Sandton area, and would cost about R1000 – R1500 per desk, per month. There wouldn’t be a lease, and I’m sure there would be some sort of crowd law that would ensure that everyone is creating a fun atmosphere, that is conducive to producing good work.

Gareth is going to be running a start up, Brett will run Hypertext Media (custom magazine publishing) and I will play around with some new ventures that I am starting soon.

We are trying to gauge the interest of others who would want to participate, so that we know how big a space we need to find. If you are a freelancer, work from home or runs a small company and want to save on office rent and mix with a cool crowd of people, get in touch with us. You can email me at eved AT ideabank.co.za or leave a comment below. There is no obligation, but please only express interest if this is genuinely something you would want to do. Let us know how many people you would be bringing with you, and if you have a finite time for which you need the space.
We would probably get this going from January or February.

As a web strategist who shies away from implementation, I am very often asked by clients and colleagues to recommend people or companies who can do “xyz”. I love putting people in touch with each other, and have often thought that there should be a handbook of South African who specialise in the various web technologies.

Well, there is now :-) I am putting together a “SA Web Bible”, which will hopefully be a pretty comprehensive listing of all the companies in South Africa who offer web related solutions to clients. The “book” will be a .pdf, so it can be downloaded easily. It will also be free, published under a Creative Commons license that will allow it to be distributed freely and widely.

The corporate listings have a cost of R1,500 to be included, which I think is fair, since the companies are going to get huge exposure from this, and are sure to pick up new clients.

The last .pdf book I published got about 3,000 views, and that had a very limited marketing campaign and a very niche audience. I am pretty confident that this could go into the tens of thousands in not too long a time.

The coolest thing though, is that I am including one-man shows and freelancers for free. So if you are a web expert in any web-related field, please submit your details for free inclusion.

There is loads more information on Who Can Help Me.

(I really do want to include as many individuals as possible. If you know of someone else who could benefit from a listing, please let them know! Or if you represent a company who would like to be listed, please get in touch with me).